Thinking Of An Emotional Intelligence Program For Your Office?

By: Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach

You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard of
Emotional Intelligence (EQ). More and more businesses are
recognizing the need for an EQ culture. Businesses have used it
to ease the strain of diversity, multicultural and global
offices; to decrease negative friction in the information age
where sharing is crucial; to maneuver the landmines of EEOC and
ADEA rulings; to address the tremendous human and financial
costs to employers of stressed employees in time off, illness,
low productivity, and acts of irrational violence - verbal or
physical; to hire better workers and retain them; and to
increase profitability.

At the profit level, employers know their success depends upon
having the best employee - knowing how to hire them and keep
them - and getting the best out of them.

At the personal level, we'd all prefer a congenial working
atmosphere, and wellness in ourselves and others.

If you've been considering bringing EQ to your office here are
some things to consider:

1. Emotional Intelligence can be defined by its results. After
such a program, your employees should have more self-awareness
and awareness of others in the emotional range, be able to
language problems and issues in a more constructive way, be able
to generate options, feel less stress, and be more confident in
the hardest area in the workplace - interpersonal relationships.
Studies show that most firings are the cause of "personality
conflicts" and this where EQ comes in. 2. Participants, however,
have described it to me as "the missing piece," "what I needed
that nobody could ever teach me," "an owner's guide to
excellence," and "something that brought good changes
immediately." 3. If you consider the results "intangible,"
consider this comment by a manager who was coached in EQ (the EQ
Alive! Program): "It really heightened my awareness. I'm very
sharp now about what's going on around me with people, more
attuned with feelings, can spot from a distance when something
is going on with someone." 4. Think it's only for the young, the
new, and the lower ranks? The above participant has been a
manager for 20 years. 5. The program must include theory
(because it has to do with neuroscience - how the brain works,
the emotions) and applications. The best program will leave
participants with the ability to apply EQ to the wide range of
unpredictable situations that occur in any workplace. Be sure
the EQ is taught at the "meta" level. 6. Participants should be
pre- and post-tested with an emotional intelligence assessment
such as The EQ-Map http://tinyurl.com/z94t ). 7. The program
should be comprehensive - assessment, a theoretical course,
weekly ezine, group work, and individual coaching on
competencies. 8. A 3 or 8-hour "workshop" can generate interest,
but it is not sufficient to teach the theory, skills and
applications. Don't be fooled that an 8-hour workshop can
"teach" emotional intelligence. 9. EQ can address two of the
most insidious emotions hampering productivity in your office -
fear and anger. Both shut down the thinking processes, the thing
you need the most in your workplace. "Old style" management
training included tactics which directly elicit these two
detrimental emotions. Here is a comment from someone who has
been a chief psychiatric nurse for decades: "It really opened me
up to things not well known in the nursing sector. It showed me
how people tick. Has taken me up a notch. I'm getting over
fears. I changed my leadership and this changes all those I
lead." 10. Time frame? Most participants report immediate
changes for the better in their lives, which is highly
motivational. Sustained changes require breaking old habits and
learning new ones, practicing the competencies over time. Three
months is a fair estimate. 11. This is not book learning or
"self help." EQ involves limbic (brain) learning. The skills
must be put into practice with expert feedback. Coaching with a
certified EQ coach is optimal because of the one-on-one. 12. The
instructor must be able to operationalize complex concepts.
Choose someone who can explain to you what emotional
intelligence is in plain English. If you hear jargon, it means
they've memorized something they don't really understand. 13.
Intentionally accept a program for your business that doesn't
use your own particular language. EQ is about behavioral changes
(for the better) and language is a behavior. Certain phrases are
an important part of the short-hand and camaraderie of an
office, business, or field, but they cause barriers - barriers
between people, and barriers to learning new things. Jargon is
particularly limiting with some of the most important people in
your office - new people, global offices or branches, diversity
groups, and - this is very important - the most intelligent
workers, the ones with the highest IQs. 14. If you're the
leader, participate yourself. I was making a sales call on a
company the other day and was told, "Our CEOs would never take
this. There's a group of women managers in the marketing
department, however, who..." This is Neanderthal. EQ is not "for
women" and if you think it is, you need to get into the 21st
century. Men are every bit as "emotional" as women, and suffer
just as big a consequences from its mismanagement.

As a corollary to the last point, "emotions in the workplace"
does not mean what to do about the woman who cries when under
pressure and runs to the restroom. It's about what to do with
the CEO or manager who can't control his anger and demeans and
harasses employees, leaving you increasingly at risk legally.
It's about the department head whose intimidation produces
exactly the opposite effect he intends, and is "clueless" about
this. It's about your biggest dilemma - the top salesperson or
rainmaker whose EQ is so low no one wants to work with her, good
new people leave, and you see the future of your organization
going down the tubes. It's about a department demoralized by a
previous low EQ manager that's running on something you can't
define, so can't address, but it's draining your profits. It's
about bullying and mobbing (already illegal in some countries),
which, once started is nearly impossible to contain, and which
is usually directed at the best and hardest workers. It is
sometimes unrecognized by leaders, condoned by them, or even
ordered by them. The manager who can't identify it immediately
is at-risk, and it takes keen intuition (an EQ competency) to
see beyond the "smoke screen" as to where the problem really
lies.

EQ is particularly important for men because of the health
problems around anger. The biggest selling point for EQ is, in
fact, wellness. Our emotions directly effect our immune system,
which is our health. (5 minutes of anger can suppress your
immune system for hours.)

All these are compelling reasons why EQ is about profit. EQ
addresses the spaces between the lines of the flow chart and
spreadsheets, the policies manual, and the anti-discrimination
poster, all of which are in place, and none of which is
producing the results you want. It will bring clarity to the
parts of your operation that are shadowy and difficult to
define, such as the genius in the IT department who has all the
credentials but isn't producing, why a certain department is
always a thorn in your side, and what to do about that manager
you keep sending to training seminars and nothing happens.

EQ can also decrease your vulnerability. A study showed that
doctors make mistakes, but the ones that get sued are the ones
considered arrogant or abrasive.

IQ, training and credentials are not enough or else that young
man over there in the sales department with the IQ of 150 would
be a leading producer, and instead, he's not only barely making
quota, his arrogance and perfectionism are wreaking havoc with
the rest of the department. What happened to your rising star?
He's got it all, if only ... ?

EQ is often what separates the winners from the losers and what
allows people to achieve their potential. Wouldn't it pay to
learn more about it?